


Disconcerted

by freshywritescrap (freshiewrites), SansyFresh



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Death, Economic Anxiety, Extreme Racism, Fellverse Racism, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Racism, hard angst, money problems, monster death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:47:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21685408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freshiewrites/pseuds/freshywritescrap, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SansyFresh/pseuds/SansyFresh
Summary: A tale of what happens when humans and tale monsters alike get the wrong idea about the less fortunate among them.
Relationships: CherryBlossom - Relationship, Kedgeup - Relationship, Papyrus/Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 73





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> hey there! i know, im starting a lot of new fics all at once lol but it'll work out!!
> 
> this is kinda a heavy story based on themes of racism and economic issues, so tread carefully!
> 
> otherwise, enjoy ^^

Sunlight was playing off his eyelights as he sipped deeply at his coffee, black as the night and almost as dark as his soul. Sunrise was his favorite time of day. It was quiet, the colors of the changing sky a balm to his soul, and there was no one around to bother him while he got ready for the day. 

Red was upstairs sleeping away. It was rare his brother got up before the sun was much, much higher in the sky, but Edge had always had a difficult time sleeping. Getting up around sunrise helped him both with the groggy state he always ended up in after taking his sleeping pills, and it gave him ample time to get ready without feeling rushed. 

Finishing off his mug of coffee, Edge stared down at his newspaper for another few moments before folding it back up and standing. He put his mug in the sink to be washed later before padding his way through the kitchen and past the living room to the small hall that housed both his and his brother’s rooms.

Their house was small, smaller than what most fell monsters had and even smaller than what the general monster populace had. But it was theirs, hard fought and even harder won. Many had tried to give them grief over living here, and yet here they stayed, planted like a stubborn oak. He could count on both hands the amount of times they’d nearly lost this house, his and Red’s ingenuity the only thing keeping them from living on the streets. 

Still, there were many of their kind who  _ were  _ living on the streets. He always remembered that.

Once reaching his room, Edge gently shut the door and shucked off his shirt into the clothes basket, rummaging through his dresser until he found one of his dress shirts that wasn’t stained in one way or another. Pulling it on, he slipped into his slacks, fiddling with the button for a moment before he went over to his mirror. It was cracked in a few places but the main part of it was unmarred. Edge checked over his features to make sure there were no lingering dark spots before he nodded, satisfied.

He gave one holler out for Red to “Wake the fuck up!” before he was headed out the door and down the walk to his car. It was a rule of the neighborhood that no one messed with his car, since he was the one who usually held the potlucks and sent the kids home with full bellies when their parents couldn’t. A few of the older teens had tried, towards the beginning, and after a word with their parents had come the next day with petulant faces but earnest apologies. 

The car started after a few rumbles, Edge backing out of the drive and heading down the pothole filled road until he reached the highway. The school he taught in was one in the next town over, nowhere in Shiloh wanting to hire a fell monster. He’d been lucky that the high school in Granger, a town nearly half an hour away, had desperately needed a home ec teacher who knew both how to cook, sew, and teach the economics of general living. He had experience in all of those and so had applied, not really expecting anything to come of it but desperate enough that he went ahead. 

His surprise had been great when the school had called him for an interview. At first he wondered if no one had told the superintendent that he was a fell monster, but after both the first and second in person interview, and then being hired, he simply assumed they were just so desperate they’d have taken an ex con if they had to. 

And so had started the worst job he’d ever had. 

Edge watched the passing children as he pulled into the farthest lot, sending a prayer to the stars that no one would try anything to the tires today, and hopped out. Grabbing his briefcase he locked up the car and headed up the walk, sending a hello and a wave to the few students who saw him and waved first. 

He wasn’t popular with the kids, but he was respected, and that was what mattered. At least in his opinion, but being liked by a few of them was reward all on its own. 

There was Ginger, the chubby, dark furred rabbit monster who said what she meant when she meant it. There was the emerald flame monster named Gregory who liked to try to test him but always gave him a fistbump after class. And there was Evan, who was the tallest of the bunch, almost taller than Edge himself, a bull monster who was quiet and yet very telling of his interests. 

And every one of them fell monsters. Something about that didn’t surprise Edge, but he couldn’t say it didn’t hurt him a little, deep on the inside, where he hid his deepest thoughts. 

But now was not the time to consider their political environment. Now was the time to open the door to his classroom and deal with the first batch of students who, from the beginning of the year, had tested his very edges of patience. 

Swinging the door open with authority, Edge walked inside, ignoring the quiet snickers and hate filled whispers that followed him to his desk. Setting his briefcase down, he hazarded a glance at the white board, rolling his eyelights at the crude and lewd drawings that covered it.

Leaning against his desk, he clapped his hands loudly once, reveling in their winces.

“Alright, kids, lets get today started.”

~.~

The first three classes were his worst lot, though the three after weren’t so bad. Edge had the theory it was because none of his first lot had the chance to eat breakfast and were hangry, since the last three classes were much better behaved and  _ they  _ were  _ after  _ lunch.

After the principal had tasted his cooking, he’d slyly asked Edge to work a double shift as a lunch lady for about half the pay he was already making. Edge had denied gracefully, on the one condition that he would work Lunch Monitor at the lunch period before his next class. That was something he was happy to do, seeing as how there were several windows and a door that lead to the exit right there in the room. It was good for fires, less for wayward gunmen. 

None of the other teachers seemed interested in keeping the peace so yes, Edge did Lunch Monitor duty with a grin on his face and a song in his heart and if the song was something along the lines of wishing the deaths of his enemies, well, that was between him and the Angel. 

Nothing big ever happened while lunch was going, mostly because the children were more interested in eating than getting in scuffles with each other. There had been exactly three fights in the five years he’d been teaching there, his mere presence a deterrent in keeping the kids from doing shit they weren’t supposed to.

That alone had earned him some grudging respect from the other teachers.

He typically brought his own lunch if he was going to eat, but on most days he didn’t eat lunch, preferring to eat snacks in his classroom and a large dinner, rather than have his attention taken away from the children by the food he was planning to eat.

Most of the children gave him a wide berth as they gathered to get their allotment of daily lunch, but a few would wave or, on rare occasion, come up and ask him a question about class or a test that was coming up. On very, very rare occasion, someone would ask him if he was having a good day. He always answered with an affirmative and sent them on their way, with a prayer to the Angel that no one saw them interacting with him who had anger in their souls.

The rest of the day went smoothly enough, Edge teaching his students, helping them learn the ways of the world and how to cook and sew and do their taxes because it was important. Upon leaving, he noticed that, once again, someone had tried to key his car. He’d ask one of the neighborhood car junkies to help him buff it out; bribery with homemade goods was nearly always a good bartering tool.

The drive home was as simple and quiet as the drive to work, but of course as Edge opened the front door and slipped out of his shoes, he winced at the smell of food cooking in the kitchen. Red making dinner meant that, once again, he’d not found a potential job, or one he’d been hopeful for had hired someone else. It happened more and more often these days, and it hurt Edge’s soul a little more to see his older brother so despondent every time. 

Still, he would probably enjoy whatever meal Red had conjured up, no matter where the money for the groceries had come from, so Edge would eat it with a grin. 

Slinging his coat on the back of the couch, he set his briefcase down on the side table before padding to the kitchen. Red was inside, gently stirring a large pot of what Edge could only assume was some kind of spiced soup, based on the smell. Of course a delicious smell of baked mac n cheese was coming from the oven, and there was a plate of buttered bread waiting on the counter. 

Edge couldn’t have prepared it all better himself, coming up behind his brother and resting his chin on the top of his skull.

“Jambalaya again brother?” Edge observed, looking over the mix of chicken, rice and other spices and peppers. Red nodded, his head knocking against Edge’s chin until he backed away, chuckling. 

“How was yer day, bro?” Red asked, waving for Edge to sit at the table. Edge sat with a sigh, red eyelights bleary in their sockets.

“Long and more difficult than it has any right to be. As usual.” Edge griped, Red chuckling as he nodded. Once upon a time Red had worked as a teacher at a town far, far away from where they lived now. There was a reason they’d moved nearly five states away.

The point was that he understood the prejudice that Edge was going through. He was going through something similar, being unable to find a place anywhere in the five or so cities within a 50 mile radius that was willing to hire him with his LV.

Red’s LV was a bit of a sore spot with anyone he met, but Edge understood better than most “regular” monsters did. You did things you weren’t proud of when you were desperate. 

Once dinner was finished, Red plated them both up a bowl and sat at Edge’s other side, the two of them eating in silence even as they leaned against each other. After Edge cleaned up, Red putting up the remaining food in the plastic containers Edge had been lucky to find on sale. Then, once everything was clean and put away, Red headed for the living room, Edge following along behind without a second word. 

As it turned out Master Chef was an excellent show to fall asleep to, Edge staring down at his brother with a soft smile. He really wished that Red didn’t feel so worthless based on how much money he could contribute to the house. Still, he appreciated how hard his brother worked to keep any prying eyes off of them.

So yes, Master Chef was brilliant to fall asleep to, the noise of stirring whisks and the low timber of hurried people following Edge into sleep.


	2. Don't Worry Child

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter woooo!! bit shorter, but hopefully they'll go back up to nearly 2k in the future.
> 
> im excited about this one boys ;)
> 
> general warnings apply, Racism, Money Issues and Food Problems (not disorders) abound

It both a surprise and not when Edge caught wind of the removal of a teacher at the school for what had been termed as “gross misconduct”. He never was able to get the full story on what really happened, but as his students told him, the Physics teacher, one of the few other Fell teachers on staff, had been accosted violently by a student and had defended himself. 

A stupid decision really; none of these pissants would have ever believed that he was the one in danger. All they saw was a teacher "attacking" a student, and a Fell one at that. It was all they needed to give him the boot.

This was not the first time a Fell monster had been removed from their position because of something they didn’t do, or in this case, something they  _ did  _ do that scared their more “peaceful” counterparts. It made Edge sick to think about it, but there was very little he could do, or have done. 

If he’d been there it was more likely than not that they’d both have been fired. He didn’t take violence on anyone lightly. His LV growled at the very thought of it, reminding him of days old when fighting was a necessary evil. 

Still, there had been a distinct trend in the removal of Fell staff over the past year or so, the positions quickly being refilled either by humans or tale monsters, most of whom were unqualified for the job. Edge was sickened by just how many students’ grades had been dropping because a teacher wasn’t doing their job right, especially when it appeared to be a more _racist forward_ reason. Angel above, it made him sick to think about it.

Ginger herself had come to him right after the last bell had rung one day, nearly in tears as she explained that she was failing several classes who had newer teachers, all either human or tale monster.    


It made him furious and concerned all in one measure, and he’d gone directly to the superintendent with it. In hindsight, that had been a mistake. 

Ginger hadn’t returned to tell him any updates, his hopes that her situation had improved tempered by the knowledge that the higher ups had likely scared her into not talking to him about any of it. Again, it made him very, very angry, but there was very little he could do.

The fact that the Physics teacher had been fired over such biased claims was only worsened by the fact that they’d _already_ hired a new monster to take his place. Edge hadn’t heard much about this new monster yet, hadn’t had a chance to meet them since the whole debacle had taken place over a two week break. He didn’t have high hopes, based on past experience, so he determined to have another conversation with the principal at the very least to discuss where his own career was headed. 

Which brought him back to now, sharing a meal with his brother as the two of them tried to avoid looking at the other for the shame in their own eyes.

“I don’t believe I’ll have a job at the school for much longer.” he said quietly, Red pausing as he chewed through a bite of rigatoni. Edge had wanted to try something new in the world of pasta, something beyond lasagna and if he was honest, he was glad they’d had the chance to try it at least once.

It wasn’t to his tastes, but that wasn’t the point.

“Y’say so, bro?” Red asked, carefully not looking up at him. Red had always been more intuitive than anyone gave him credit for, it was one reason why Edge couldn’t understand why no one would hire him. 

Edge nodded, though, continuing. “They fired Harris. From what I could figure out, a student attacked him and he tried to defend himself. He’s in the hospital now, has been for two days.”

Red’s grip on his fork tightened. Violence against Fell monsters had always been a rough topic for both of them. Growing up in the midst of it all made it difficult to forget what it was like to gain an LV. 

Even now Edge could feel it swirling in his soul, demanding he do something about the injustice done to one of his own people, but he stamped it down. It would help absolutely nothing if he came in magic primed and LV roaring in his ears. 

“What’re ya gonna do?” Red asked, thoughtlessly pushing his food around his plate as he glanced up at Edge.

He shrugged, taking his last bite of food before standing and putting the plate and fork in the sink. “There’s not much I can do. We can only hope the replacement isn’t a dick.”

Red snorted, grabbing a plastic container from the cabinet to scrape the remnants of his food into. “We’ll see, bro. Lemme do the dishes tonight.”

Edge nodded, stepping back as he dried his hands, and watched as his brother began stacking up the dishes, readying them for washing. 

This whole situation would be a difficult one, and he wasn’t sure what they’d do if he was fired, but by the grace of the Angel they’d prevail. They had so far, they would continue to do so. 

~.~

He “met” the newest teacher at the next staff meeting, the principal introducing him as Mr. Font, but the short skeleton (and wasn’t that a surprise) had told everyone to just call him Sans. 

Edge was wary of the new Physics teacher, this “Sans”. He was almost instantly popular with the other teachers, even if some of them were wary seeing as how he was a skeleton. Sans won them over quickly enough with his puns and bringing food to the office, none of which Edge would have touched with a twenty foot pole. 

He had no way of knowing what was in the food, and none of it was specifically offered to the Fell staff so they all stayed away from it. It was an ingrained habit, mistrust of those who claimed were made of kindness and compassion. They all knew it to be one of the biggest lies in history.

All signs pointed to Sans being just like the rest of them, which was only made more concrete by the sight Edge was greeted with during lunch, a week or so after Sans had started, when Sans walked calmly into the lunch room and sat as far from Edge as he possibly could.

So he was a racist prick, Edge decided, putting Sans on his list of people to avoid if at all possible. It was an extensive list, and one that he had memorized.

It would have been a lot easier to do, though, if Sans didn’t start coming in for lunch monitoring duty every school day after that, moving a little closer each day.

Edge had no idea what his game plan was, but if he was looking to try anything nefarious, he would have a big reckoning coming his way.


	3. Making Amends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i accidentally rewrote this chapter, and i like the new version better, so have it instead XD
> 
> enjoy !

The mystery of this new teacher, a skeleton just like himself and yet looking more like his brother than himself, was keeping Edge busy in the moments between classes and the rides home. It was indeed one of the best mysteries that he’d had to solve in a long time; the last one was how and why a banana kept appearing on his desk at precisely 1:33 every day. He’d still not solved that one… somehow he was always away from his desk at that time, no matter his efforts to be there and catch the banana fiend.

But this Sans, character, was the best mystery he’d had to date. 

Edge was a young skeleton in terms of monster years, but he’d never met someone quite like Sans. The skeleton was laid back, seemed to get along with all of the other teachers, even ones that didn’t like monsters in general, and for his first week teaching, had been a lunch monitor for that entire time.

Edge knew that the other teachers had tried to get Sans to eat with them instead. 

“That Fellgrounds teacher, he has the kids. We don’t need to worry though, he won’t try anything with the superintendent breathing down his neck.” they laughed, and Edge was surely imagining the discomfort on Sans’ face whenever he declined their offers. He always sat as far as possible at first… at least until the third week he’d been there.

Edge entered the chilly lunch room, face set in a hardened scowl as his last batch of students had been a bit more than annoying in their insolence that day, only to find Sans sitting… right next to Edge’s regular seat. There was only one table for the teachers to sit at, but it was particularly long; perfect for more than just one teacher, but awkward for when Edge usually sat there himself.

It took him aback for a moment; what possible reason could Sans have for sitting where he knew Edge sat every single day without fail? At least he hadn’t sat in Edge’s exact seat; Edge might have had to leave and eat in his own classroom if only to not lose his cool. 

It was a respect thing, and apparently Sans was lacking in it. 

Stalking up to the teacher’s table, Edge let his bag slap the table, not feeling a single iota of guilt as Sans, who had been listening to something on his phone, jerked upright.

“May I ask what you’re doing?”

Sans gave him a strange look. “I’m eating? Oh, and John Mulaney put out a new podcast for one of his shows, I was listening to that too.” 

The “sitting here minding my own business, duh” was strongly implied, and Edge was trying to not blow up at the new teacher just because he had a bad day. It wouldn’t be fair, and he really did need this job. 

“Well, let me rephrase.” Edge leaned in a little. “Why are you sitting here?”

Sans glanced around the room, at the students slowing filing in and the cafeteria workers that were watching them carefully for any sign of trouble. “Cause you’re the only other teacher in here? And I’m not allowed to sit by the kids?”

Edge’s socket was twitching now, as he took a breath and let it out. He’d have to spell this out, apparently. “If the other teachers put you up to this as a prank on my person, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Now Sans looked confused and a little peeved, though at what Edge wasn’t entirely sure. 

“I’m… sitting here because I want to sit by you? Not because the… have they really done that before??” He sounded shocked, as if the thought of Fellground’s personnel hazing wasn’t common where he came from. 

Edge wasn’t entirely sure what to say, so he simply left his bag and went to grab his lunch from the cafeteria fridge, ignoring the slurs written on the top in sharpie and praying to the angel that no one tampered with it this time, after the last incursion that ended with a reprimand for Edge and a threat of bodily harm to the person who’d done it. 

When he returned Sans was back to listening to his podcast, laughing quietly at some joke that Edge couldn’t hear, before sitting up fully and taking off his headphones as Edge sat down.

It was eerie, how interested his expression was as he watched Edge uncap his food… only to find that it had been completely ruined with what looked like ash from the cigarettes the workers smoked. 

Edge felt his body deflate, sitting back in his seat as he stared at the mess. There was the sound of someone hissing, Edge glancing up to find Sans staring angrily at what was once a nice bowl of leftovers. 

“Who the hell did that?” he asked, and Edge found himself waving the other off.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m saving up for a fridge for my room; hopefully that will deter such actions.”

Sans glanced up at him, then back at the ruined food, seemingly angry still. “That’s not right, we can get whoever did it in trouble for messing with your property.”

Edge laughed, the sound sharp and bitter as it was quiet. “If you really think those in charge here give a crap that my food was messed with, be my guest.”

Now Sans was staring at him, something sad in his gaze, and suddenly Edge couldn’t take it anymore. He stood, gathering his things and tossing what was left of his food into the trash. 

“I will return tomorrow to watch the children.” And with that, he left, heading for his own classroom to prepare the next lesson… and calm down from what was a very confusing interaction.

Why the hell would this Sans care?

Whatever the reason, it didn’t really matter. He had work to do, and if Sans wanted to play friends, well. Edge knew a thing or two about pretend.


End file.
